As a confirmed off-the-beaten-path traveler, I’m a bit miffed Ireland mapped the Wild Atlantic Way, a 1,500-mile route that ebbs and flows along the Emerald Isle’s raggedy-edged western coastline between Derry and Kinsale. Publicizing the off-the-tourist-grid detours means I’ll no longer have them to myself, but I take some comfort knowing there is a catch, a wee one, mind you, but one worth noting: The Wild Atlantic Way isn’t for cowards. Embracing the experience requires navigating serpentine, cliff-etched and stonewall-hemmed roads while seated on the right and keeping to the left.

The Wild Atlantic Way follows byways rather than highways. It hugs sheep-strewn headlands; edges beaches, peat bogs and patchwork fields; slips through Irish-speaking villages and by ancient archaeological sites; and rewards those who surrender to serendipity. The magic happens when one acts on a whim and takes the time to venture down single-lane byways, linger in don’t-blink villages or answer the invitation of leprechauns and fairies. Sheltering in the shadows, they entice passersby to hike, paddle, surf, play golf, ogle gardens, watch birds or simply admire a rainbow-kissed sunset. Sure, there are the must-see highlights, starred in the guidebooks and on maps, but sea-salted and peat-scented memories are made in the conversations and experiences betwixt and between.

I first fell under County Donegal’s spell while dipsy-doodling the Inishowen 100, a stunningly scenic loop wrapping the Inishowen Peninsula. Along the way, my husband and I time-traveled at Grianan of Aileach, a ring fort founded by Druids roughly 4,000 years ago; marveled at the soaring dunes of Five Fingers Beach; inhaled the Atlantic-scrubbed air while watching the day’s storm-tossed blues cede to evening’s reds, oranges and purples from Bamba’s Crown, Ireland’s most northerly point; and held our collective breath as we zigzagged up and over Mamore Gap.

Cozy harbors and fishing villages salt County Donegal’s coastline. © Hilary Nangle

Inishowen was merely a warm-up for Donegal’s Fanad and Rosguill peninsulas and Horn Head. Using the excellent regional Ordnance Survey maps as our guide, we sidetracked and backtracked rural roads snaking through rolling farmlands and heathlands, nosing out to beaches and dead-ending at cliffs en route to Fanad Head Lighthouse, dramatically sited on a rocky outcropping on the northeast tip. We shimmied down the peninsula’s eastern shoreline, pausing to walk the sands of Ballystocker, considered one of the world’s most beautiful beaches, and prowled through the ivy-covered ruins of the early-16th-century Carmelite Friary in Rathmullan.

We drove Rossguill’s Atlantic Drive at least three times, veering down different byways each time. Despite the frequency, I never stopped holding my breath on the hairpin turns nor tired of viewing Tramore’s and Trabeg’s linked arc of golden sands, browsing McNutt’s Woolen Mill in Downings or dipping into The Singing Pub for a pint. En route to Horn Head, we stopped for lunch in the market town of Dunfanaghy. In a chance encounter in the Muck’n’Muffins, I met Brendan Rohan, author of the Dunfanaghy Walk Guide. After I purchased a copy, he directed me to Tramore Beach with the recommendation, “If you do no other walks, do this one!”

Donegal’s remote northwestern corner is scalloped with harbors and bays and salted with pocket-sized fishing villages with irresistible hobbit-like names such as Bunbeg and Derrybeg. In Burtonport, a giant lobster drew us into the Lobster Pot, aka Kelly’s, an Irish Pub of Distinction, for lunch. I imagined the Bloody Foreland’s rugged and unforgiving coastline as the site of long-ago battles or violent shipwrecks but learned the name comes from the sunset glow of its red granite cliffs. Tory Island, once home to Balor, the Celtic King of Darkness, teased on the horizon, but time didn’t permit a visit.

From Donegal, the Wild Atlantic Way slips through County Sligo, meandering out to Mullaghmore Head, famed for its beaches and big-wave surfing, and wooing literary lovers with sections of the Yeats Trail. Instead of channeling Ireland’s famed bard down by the Sally Gardens, I indulged my passion for ancient archaeological sites at Carrowmore, one of Europe’s largest megalithic sites. I doubled down on old rocks at County Down’s Ceide Fields, the world’s most extensive Stone Age monument. Set amid miles of blanket bogs, this nearly 6,000-year-old field system comprises stone walls, dwellings and megalithic tombs. And the views? Literally staggering, as the wind challenged my upright status.

Oscar Wilde described County Galway’s rugged Connemara, divided by the Twelve Bens Mountains and edged on three sides by the sea, as possessing “savage beauty.” And how. I suffered eyeball whiplash from Ping-Ponging the scenery — intimate yet expansive, desolate yet inviting — as we followed the shoreline of Killary Fjord from Leenane to Killary Harbor, and then out the Renvyle Peninsula on the Connemara Loop until it intersected with Connemara National Park in Letterfrack. In Clifden, we white-knuckled the cliff-hugging, cloud-touching Sky Road before looping out to remote Derrigimlagh Bog, where world history was made in 1907 when the first commercial trans-Atlantic wireless station began operations, and again on June 15, 1919, when the first transcontinental flight crash-landed in the muck after departing from Newfoundland 16 hours earlier.

County Clare’s coastline is framed by Galway Bay, the Atlantic and the Shannon River Estuary and punctuated with headliners including the Cliffs of Moher; Doolin’s traditional music pubs; and the white sands, red dunes and golf greens of Lahinch and Doonbeg. Yet every time I visit, I’m seduced by The Burren’s siren song. My missionary-like zeal for finding every mapped castle and ancient ruin was amply rewarded while driving the single-track lanes webbing these barren, silvery-purple limestone hills. Once, we met another car head-on, stopping just feet from a bumper-to-bumper collision. The other driver reached out his window and pulled in his spring-loaded mirror. My husband mimicked his gesture. Both inched cautiously forward. When they were window to window, the other driver turned to my husband, noted his death grip on the wheel and smiled. “Re-lax,” he trilled with a nod and, with a tip of his tweed hat, continued on.

The Wild Atlantic Way wraps around the handful of gem-ringed bony fingers that reach into the Atlantic from the shores of counties Kerry and Cork. The Dingle Peninsula’s archaeological heritage dates back to the Mesolithic period and includes more than 2,000 preserved sites, and my husband swears we’ve visited every one. It’s almost as if there’s a tower house, ogham stone, church ruin, monastic site or holy well around every bend. We bridged the centuries at the Blasket Centre, an immersion into the history and heritage of the pyramid-shaped offshore islands, famed as a mid-20th-century Irish literary wellspring, and departed the peninsula with three treasures: a teapot from Louis Mulcahy Pottery, a blanket from Lisbeth Mulcahy’s Dingle shop and a handmade wool sweater from McKenna’s.

Killarney, Killarney National Park and The Ring of Kerry, on the Iveragh Peninsula, deserve their icon status. We lost the tour buses by steering off the marked route to pad about the ruins of Ballycarbery and Dunkerron castles and Staigue, one of the country’s largest and best-preserved stone ring forts, and dip and soar on The Skellig Ring, a jiggety-jog around the peninsula’s tip. The reward: fine views of Skellig Michael, a 6th-century monastic site and UNESCO World Heritage site topping a rock eight miles off the peninsula’s tip.

Irish cheeses in Kenmare Market © Hilary Nangle

Lovely Kenmare, home to Kenmare Lace and a stone circle, heads the bay between the Iveragh Peninsula and far less touristed, far less developed, far more rugged and ragged Beara Peninsula. I loathe sharing the Beara, a wild child that tour buses skip due to the narrowness of the main roads. Truth is, those main roads are highways when compared with the roller coaster lanes noodling the coastline’s puzzled nooks and crannies.

A friend and I roamed the Beara for three days and didn’t begin to crack the possibilities. We ambled in fishing villages; mucked about stone circles, wedge tombs and castle ruins; walked sections of the Beara Way; and puttered around the Allihies Copper Mine. We planned to brave the cable car to Dursey Island for a day of walking in paradise but were thwarted by threatening skies. But even showers couldn’t deter us from ferrying to Garinish Island to stroll through the formal Italianate and woodland gardens.

We snaked up and over blustery Healy Pass, the peninsula’s mountainous spine, a few times, unable to resist the sunrise/sunset panorama dropping to Kenmare Bay on one side and Bantry Bay on the other. The first time, gale force winds welcomed us to the summit, and we clung to each other to avoid flying over the edge. Another time, we summited in the golden light of sunset, chased by brooding clouds that dappled the shimmery waters and ruby skies with inky pockets of rain. Soft rain again misted the pass on our farewell journey; but as we approached the summit, the clouds blinked, the sun winked, and I swear I saw a leprechaun leap.

Wild Atlantic Way Info to Go

International flights arrive at Belfast International Airport, Shannon Airport and Dublin Airport. Rental cars are available at all. Excellent regional road maps are available from Ordnance Survey Ireland.

Where to Stay in Ireland

Gregans Castle Hotel An oasis of ease and luxury amid the rugged Burren countryside, this 21-room Irish Georgian manor earns renown for warm hospitality, award-winning cuisine, beautiful gardens and views to Galway Bay. Ballyvaughan, County Clare $$$

Park Kenmare Steps from the heritage town of Kenmare and overlooking Kenmare Bay, this 46-room, 5-star, Relais & Châteaux-member hotel with cinema, spa and lap pool melds Victorian grace with contemporary chic. Kenmare, County Kerry $$$

Rosapenna Hotel & Golf Resort The 4-star, 66-room Rosapenna, tucked in dunes between two beaches edging Sheephaven Bay, caters to golfers with its 1893 Old Tom Morris course and 2003 Sandy Hills Links. Downings, County Donegal $$

Restaurants in Ireland

Aniar Restaurant Chef Ultan Cooke heads the kitchen of this informal, Michelin-starred restaurant, where the daily-changing menu features local, seasonal, wild and foraged fare. There’s a cooking school on the premises. 53 Lower Dominick St., Galway, County Galway $$$

Gregans Castle Hotel Gaze over gardens to Galway Bay from the nationally recognized dining room, where the four- and eight-course, contemporary Irish menus draw from locally sourced fare. The Corkscrew Bar serves lunch. Ballyvaughan, County Clare $$$

Manning’s Emporium Farmhouse cheeses, charcuterie and baked goods are just a sampling of the scrumptious fare available at this combination gourmet food shop, deli and café with indoor and outdoor seating. Ballylickey, Bantry, County Cork $–$$

Read about Ireland’s Inishowen Peninsula.